Jaded Hearts
Chapter 76

SEVENTY-SIX | WHERE ARE THEY?

Tyson

“We have to go home. Now.”

“What the f**k do you mean ‘go home’? Some son of a b***h has our friends; my f*****g brothers, and you want to just go home? I thought you were better than this!” Kade yelled at me.

“Don’t start that s**t with me. They’re my family too. I know I’m new to the group, but that doesn’t mean I’d just leave them to f*****g die. What’s wrong with you?”

“Isn’t it obvious? If we don’t replace them, Blue Moon falls to me until Xayden turns eighteen. I can’t run that pack; I’m not an Alpha. I’m not strong like Xander. And what are we going to tell the ladies? We promised we’d keep each other safe, and three of our group got kidnapped!”

Kade was having a meltdown, and I didn’t have time to deal with it at the moment. I walked back in the house and began to recheck all the rooms; you never leave anyone behind who can identify you or help the enemy to retaliate. Once I’d verified that the house was clear and no one was left alive, I turned on the gas in the kitchen and struck a match.

Back out front, Kade was scanning the area. What he was looking for, I had no clue.

“What are you doing?” I asked.

“Trying to replace any trace of our friends. I don’t see tire tracks, paw prints, nothing. How did they get them out of here without us seeing or hearing anything?”

I looked around myself and saw that he was right. It was like Drew’s disappearance all over again. Gone without a trace.

“Vampires or witches, that’s the only way. Now let’s get back to the plane and back home.”

“Tyson! We can’t leave them, why is that so hard for you to understand? I know bears are solitary, but wolves aren’t. I need to replace my pack.”

I’d had enough of this s**t.

“I swear if you accuse me of leaving them behind one more time, we’re going to have some major f*****g problems. I’m trying to replace them, but you’re standing here bitching at me. I need my laptop, and it’s at home, so I need to go the f**k home!”

“What’s on your laptop?”

“Hopefully, their location. I gave Lex a transmitter.”

“Why didn’t you say that in the first place?”

“Maybe I’d hoped you’d have more faith in me and trust that I want to replace them as much as you do.”

Kade deflated as my words hit home.

“I’m sorry, man. I feel like this was all my fault. I should have just gone in, shot Drew, and left. But instead, I had to rub s**t in his face. I wasted valuable time, and the guys got caught.”

“They’re more than likely still alive, so we just have to get home and replace them. Beat yourself up later.”

I grabbed my bag and headed towards the treeline. We’d stashed a truck at the edge of the road, which wasn’t too far away. Once we reached it, Kade hopped in the driver’s seat and took off towards the airport while I tried to see if I can get the transmitter’s location on my phone.

“What are you doing?” he asked.

“The transmitter I gave Lex is brand-new. I’d been working on it for a while and just got it working a few weeks ago. It’s small and lightweight, but it also can’t be detected on any scanner. I didn’t have enough time to get the app for it up and running, and now I feel like an i***t for not bringing my computer with me. I was trying to see if I could hack my own system to get the location, but no luck.”

“Don’t worry about it. We should be home in a couple of hours. The guys are smart, and they know how to stay alive long enough for us to replace them. It’s the women I’m worried about.”

I didn’t want to see Taylor’s face when we told her Matt was missing because of Drew. I was supposed to bring him home safe, and we were finally going to talk. Now I never saw that happening.

“You take Alaia, and I’ll take sunshine,” I said.

“f**k! They better be alive,” Kade whined.

* * *

We pulled up to the house a little before noon, and instead of heading inside, we diverted straight to my place. We’d tell the ladies what was happening soon, but first I had to replace the guys. I rushed in and straight to my office, quickly pulling up the tracking program. I located the tracker, then pulled up its coordinates.

“s**t! The last location is the Maple Bark address. Wherever they are now hasn’t registered yet.”

“So, what does that mean? Can we still replace them?” Kade asked.

“It means the transmitter is either damaged, destroyed, or having its signal blocked.”

“Blocked how?”

“Maybe they’re underground or in an iron f*****g box. I don’t know!”

“You’re telling me we wasted time coming back here for a transmitter that doesn’t even work?”

“Did you have any other suggestions?”

“Well, maybe if you hadn’t torched the place, we could have found some clues or something. Now we don’t have s**t!”

“Hey, what’s going on? Why are you two screaming?”

I was so wound up that I didn’t even feel that Taylor was close by. I turned in my chair to see her standing in the door with a worried expression on her face, looking between Kade and me.

“Hey, sunshine. I didn’t know you were here.”

“The patrols let us know when the truck crossed the border, and then I saw you guys drive over here. Where’s everyone else?”

“Come sit down with me for a minute, will you? I’ll explain everything.”

She took a small step back and began shaking her head.

“Where are they, Tyson? Where’s Matt? Kade, where is he?!”

“I’m so sorry, sweetie, but we don’t know. They’re gone,” he replied.

She turned and ran from the room, and I jumped up to catch her. I needed to explain so that she wouldn’t break. I couldn’t let her break.

* * *

Taylor

He couldn’t be gone. I would know, I would feel it. I know I would. Whatever was happening could be fixed, so I just needed to think. I could figure this out, and I would replace him.

“Sunshine, wait a minute,” Tyson yelled out behind me.

I spun around and looked at him. He was splattered with b***d and looked exhausted. I wanted to be angry with him and blame him, but what good would that do?

“Let me explain what’s happening to you, please,” he said.

“Fine. Start explaining.”

“We don’t know where they are, but I promise I will replace them. I’ll bring Matt home to you, I swear.”

I didn’t want promises; I wanted facts. Promises could be broken, but facts I could work with. “Tell me what happened,” I said.

“We found Drew, and I killed him.”

I just nodded my head. So, he was finally dead, but even in death, he was ruining my life. He’d still managed to somehow take my family away from me. “What does that have to do with Matt and the others?”

He took a deep breath before he began to explain everything that went down, going back to the letter that was left for me. As I listened, I felt angry, betrayed, relieved, and confused. With so many emotions warring inside me, I couldn’t tell you which one was most prevalent.

“So, whoever has them is probably the same person who took Drew and is behind EE Inc., right?”

“That’s what I’m thinking.”

“Pull up the other properties they own and replace the blueprints. See which ones could possibly hold a dungeon or basement. Anything that could contain three wolves,” I suggested.

He smiled and shook his head. “You think like me. I’m already doing that.”

“Good. How long does it take?” I asked.

“Hours, maybe days. It depends on how many different properties there are.”

“We don’t have days. Go take a shower and change. I’ll watch the computer to see if the transmitter starts to work, and I’ll keep an eye on the property search. Matt’s alive, and I want to keep it that way, so we need to work together.”

“Are you okay?” he asked as he stepped forward and took my hand.

“Hell no, I’m not okay. My insane ex-boyfriend is dead, but I don’t have time to be happy because, during the process, the love of my life was taken. I have to work side by side with you to replace him while trying to sort out my feelings for you that are getting stronger and stronger every day. I want to roll up into a ball and cry, but who’s that going to help?”

Tyson’s eyes bored into mine. “We’re going to replace him.”

“I know we will.”

* * *

Eleven hours later, Alaia, Morgan, and Kade were with Tyson and me in his office, trying everything we could think of to replace the guys. Every time Tyson found a new property, one of us would begin the search for the blueprints, trying and figure out if it was a viable location.

It was crowded and frustrating work, but none of us complained. We had to work together, or our family would die.

Nothing was more important than their lives.

It wasn’t until my stomach loudly rumbled that I realized I’d been going nonstop for hours, never once stopping to eat. None of us had.

“I heard that, and I’m starving too. Geoff should be bringing over something for us to eat in the next fifteen minutes,” Alaia said.

“Thank goodness! I thought it was just me.”

When the food arrived, we all decided to take a break and refuel. We couldn’t replace the guys if we were burned out. In the kitchen were four huge, fresh, homemade pizzas.

“I’m happy it’s not something too fancy. I just can’t see myself sitting down to steak and lobster when I don’t know what Matt has eaten or even how he’s doing.”

“I understand, sweetie. We all feel the same way,” Morgan said.

We ate in silence, barely even tasting the food before swallowing it. This wasn’t our typical family meal full of laughter and conversation. This was just a means to an end; we needed energy so we could keep going. Even with the food, though, it was obvious we were exhausted. We may not have been physically working, but we were mentally, and that was just as draining.

“Okay, everyone, go home and rest. We can pick this back up in the morning. When you’re tired, you make stupid mistakes, and we can’t afford that right now,” Tyson told us.

Alaia and I started to argue, but Kade and Morgan convinced us that he was right. We all needed a few hours of sleep, and then we could start all over again.

“I’ll sleep, but I want to stay here. I need to be close by just in case we replace anything. And I can’t sleep in that room without him, not like this,” I told Tyson.

“Don’t you need to be home for Genesis?”

“Giana has her. She’s had her since Sunday morning.”

“Alright. Well, if that’s what you want, then the guest room’s yours.”

Alaia, Kade, and Morgan left, and I went to the bathroom to wash my face and get ready for bed.

“Sunshine? I have a shirt for you to wear,” Tyson called from the other side of the door.

Once I was dressed, I looked down and chuckled. His shirt went past my knees, and it reminded me of the first time I’d slept over with Matt after I found out that he was a wolf.

First a wolf, and now a bear.

I walked into the office and smiled at Tyson behind the computer before I stretched out across the small couch.

“The guest room is set up for you, gorgeous. That couch is going to destroy your back.”

I just shook my head and said, “I don’t care. He’s probably sleeping on the cold hard ground, so I can handle a small couch.”

“He wouldn’t want you hurting yourself as a show of solidarity.”

“How do you know?”

“Because he loves you, just like I do. I’d never want you to do this to yourself.”

Before I could respond, a loud alarm started going off on the computer.

“Please tell me that’s what I think it is,” I said as I rushed over.

“Finally! Lex was able to turn on the tracker. Call the group back, sunshine. It’s time to go get our boys.”